I saw this news report about a year ago and was wondering if anyone knew the status of the project. Please email me if you do. Brian.

Los Angeles Imagine Entertainment and Universal Pictures laid down a whopping $1.5 million for the rights to The Laws of Madness, an 81 page book proposal by Michael Lauder about his real-life experiences. Image co-CEO Brian Grazer, who will produce the film, said it would be developed as a fast-track project for his partner, Ron Howard, to direct. "This is the perfect thing for us to do after Apollo 13," said Grazer, an Oscar nominee for his last venture with Howard. The two are working on Ransom, which stars Mel Gibson. "This is thrilling because it has so much pathos and emotion. It will get great casting, because the two key roles are emotionally complicated, challenging and also very castable," Grazer said. The story centers on a 24-yr-old man living in La Rochelle, N.Y., who begins to demonstrate symptoms of schizophrenia. Karen Hehela, president of Imagine, noted, "His close-knit family even began to believe his stories until his behavior became so outlandish that they had to respond. He went to (a mental) hospital. But before that, he had applied to seven law schools and was accepted by them. His father guided him through Yale Law School, fighting the demons." Since then, the father "has become integral in changing the way the system works when an individual is trying to repair (himself)."